First Kill, Lvl 3

"Shit!" Cassius felt his body uncontrollably slow down, with his limbs suddenly feeling sluggish. "I can't falter here; I have to gain the upper hand. But how??" His eyes darted around him, trying to find something he could take advantage of. But there was nothing! He was in a goddamn forest; what was he expected to find!?

Whatever was chasing him definitely had the territorial advantage—and likely the strength advantage as well! He was fucking screwed—

Just as Cassius pulled his weapon satchel over his shoulder and into his hands, a few shadows jumped from an overhanging tree branch and landed with a thud right in front of him.

"Screech!!!" They screamed at him while flashing their sharpened claws, which produced deadly gleams that effortlessly cute through the air.

Turning around in an instant, Cassius's brows jittered in slight fright. He had never seen a monster before, but now that he was face-to-face with them, he felt a level of savagery that he hadn't previously thought possible. It was terrifying—terrifying enough to make him want to flee and escape the Gate without looking back.

'...I need to run… I don't want to die…!'

Just as his feet were about to take him away from these horrifying monsters, he stopped in his tracks and clenched his teeth.

With his face shrouded in shadows and his head turned down in shame, Cassius remembered exactly why he couldn't run away. Unless he wanted to return to how things once were—being the ugly fatty hated by everyone and everything, scorned for merely breathing—if he didn't want that, then he needed to fight!

He had to fight!!

"Damn it!!!" Cassius gritted his teeth and swiveled his body around, just narrowly avoiding death. A monstrous monkey, half his size, cut through the air, its cruel eyes tracing his movements mid-flight.

Cassius felt a gash tear through his shoulder blade. Even though he had preserved his life, the monkey still hit him. He cursed under his breath before rolling away from another monkey aiming to cleave off his head. Another bloody gash appeared on his body, sending waves of mind-numbing pain to his brain. Yet there was little time to process the burning pain, as the first monkey careened toward him, aiming for his ankle.

Cassius jumped, barely escaping with no damage.

While in the air, he finally got a good look at the monkeys in the darkness, which was when he noticed illuminated name tags above their heads. They were all yellow in color—one for each of the three monkeys—and they read:

[Savage Monkey (F)]

There were no levels or detailed descriptions, but just the color of their name tags was enough of a hint for Cassius. Almost instantly, he understood that the strength of the monsters was determined by the color of their name tags. He didn't have much for reference, but seeing how easily the Savage Monkeys were putting him on the defensive, yellow was definitely dangerous.

*Ding!*

[The difficulty of the monsters you face, as you guessed it, is determined by the color of their nametag.]

[Gray/White → Yellow/Orange → Red → Black]

[Weak → Dangerous → Extremely Dangerous → Certain Death]

The system came in clutch with a brief rundown, but as Cassius was doing his utmost to avoid more blood loss, he had to put all his focus on evading. It was only thanks to his Agility Stat that he was still alive, but as the Savage Monkeys were incredibly nimble creatures, their main attributes also happened to be Agility/Dexterity.

Cassius tried blocking their claws with a staff, but it didn't last even half a second before being shredded to bits.

'Shit! So much for acquiring a useful weapon to fight with!'

He bent his back like he was doing the limbo, narrowly dodging the two Savage Monkeys that flew overhead. Seeing an opportunity, he reached out and grabbed the tails of the monkeys, yanking them downward. One of the monkeys slipped free, but the other was not so fortunate.

BAM!

With overwhelming force, Cassius slammed the Savage Monkey into a large rock lying on the ground. It shrieked in pain as several of its bones shattered on impact. Yet its suffering wasn't over. With a new layer of coldness in his gaze, Cassius rolled onto the monkey and drove one of his wooden spikes down.

"Esceetch!!!" It shrieked, causing the other two Savage Monkeys to rush over in a bid to assist.

However, before they could gouge out the brazen human's neck, Cassius quickly pulled up his system interface with his free hand and tapped the up-arrow beside his Agility stat a total of five times. His spike-stabbing hand suddenly fell with several times more force and at a far greater speed.

Instead of using the Strength Stat, in a situation where he had the high ground, leveraging gravity with the Speed Stat to multiply damage was the only correct choice to make.

The result…

"Esceetch…!!!"

The Savage Monkey let out one last shriek before its body arched upward with Cassius's wooden spike at the center. As blood gushed from the monkey's mouth and its corpse fell limp, it had officially… died.

Cassius killed his first monster.

From the corner of his icy gaze, a few illusory system notifications appeared. He rolled off the Savage Monkey corpse, effectively evading the angered strikes of the other two Savage Monkeys, yet he still found time to read the system notifications.

*Ding!*

[You leveled up!]

[All of your Stats increased by 1 Point!]

[You received 2 AP!]

[You leveled up!]

[All of your Stats increased by 1 Point!]

[You received 2 AP!]

Feeling his power increase by another significant margin, Cassius also noticed a few more pop-ups appear, offering what seemed to be options.

...…